Real-time three-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography: an early single-center experience

As interventional procedures in structural heart diseases are coming of age, there is a significant lag in the periinterventional imaging development for these procedures to become safe, expedient, accurate, and well tolerated by this patient population. Currently, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), including real-time three-dimensional (RT-3D), has been used for monitoring and guidance for these procedures. Accurate identification of the pathology, its anatomy, and its relationship with the adjoining structures along with spatial resolution is of paramount importance for wire and catheter placement, device deployment, evaluation of the results, and any potential complications. Two-dimensional intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) has been used extensively for a variety of interventional procedures that undergo conscious sedation of monitored anesthesia. RT-3D ICE has recently become available; we describe our initial experience with this new imaging technology.